


Make You Feel at Ease

by UnspokenWords



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Childhood Friends, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Siblings, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Love Confessions, M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Pining Lance (Voltron), Swimming Pools, background Adashi, background romellura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23277481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnspokenWords/pseuds/UnspokenWords
Summary: Lance has known Keith for what feels like forever. They’ve known each other since elementary school, even though they’ve only been friends since middle school. And despite their past of ‘hatred’, they’ve shared a close rivalry and friendship for years now.Keith got Lance through freshman year. He and Keith are almost inseparable.But when Lance falls in love with him, all of that could change.Or, an alternative title: "5 times Keith told Lance he loved him, and 1 time Lance knew it was romantic."
Relationships: Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 35
Kudos: 394





	Make You Feel at Ease

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while, so I hope this makes up for it. This fic was actually done from a fic giveaway on Twitter, so this is dedicated to my friend Mady.  
> I hope you enjoy it.

Pidge was coming over for the first time today to play Mario Kart with the gang. They’re a freshman and Keith and Lance and Hunk are sophomores, so it’s a little awkward, but Pidge fit right into their friend groups, as if they were meant to be there.

Lance, of course, had given his mom the rundown the morning and night before. He told her what pronouns to use for Pidge, told her not to embarrass him to his new friend, told her that he plans to make cookies and asked what he should buy so he could do it.

And so, when he comes home, Pidge and Keith in tow, he expects his mom to behave and be nice while he goes to his room.

Lance was only going to his room to change into a more comfortable shirt, drop off his and Keith’s backpacks (since Keith was sleeping over), and get him a spare shirt, for baking cookies in. But, once he exits his room, shirt in hand, he finds his mom and Pidge on the couch, with Keith sitting on the armrest, leaning over to see the scrapbook.

“This is Lance when he was in fourth grade,” his mom says to Pidge, pointing at the photo of him holding candy conversation hearts and crying. “It was Valentine’s Day and the day before, Lance told me he wanted to have the best Valentine’s cards to give out to the entire class — because everyone was his friend, except Keith — and so I told him that the best ones came from the heart. And we stayed up all night making them, and when I dropped him off at school, he was as happy as can be. But he was so upset when I picked him up because he said Keith had better store-bought stuff than Lance’s handmade cards and candy too, and everyone loved Keith’s cards more.”

Lance liked Keith’s card too. He still had it, hidden in a box in his room.

_You’re nice. Let’s be friends._

But he would never tell Keith that he still had it.

“Well, I still won in the end because Keith said he liked my card the best,” Lance says instead.

“It wasn’t even a competition, my dad just bought the stuff from the store because we didn’t have time.”

“Well, it was a competition for me, and I clearly won.”

“Who’s keeping score, Lance?”

“Uh, me!”

“Please stop flirting,” Pidge says. “I’m sitting right here and I came here to play Mario Kart, not to be the fourth wheel.”

“ _Fourth_ wheel?” his mom asks.

“I told you yesterday, Hunk is coming over too.”

“He just had to run and get something from his house. Didn’t say what,” Keith chimes in.

Wait. Lance wanted to have the cookies done before Hunk got back. He had grabbed the loose shirt for Keith and everything, and he just forgot.

"Cookies,” Lance says to Keith.

“Right, cookies,” Keith replies. “Shirt?”

“Here,” Lance says, handing it to him.

“Thanks. I love you.”

“Well, you won’t for long, considering I’m going to beat your ass in Mario Kart after we make these cookies.”

“ _What_ did I say about flirting?”

* * *

It’s a Sunday night, and Keith is sleeping over at Lance’s house. They’re alone in his room, and Lance is laying on his bed, scrolling on his phone, occasionally peeking over his phone to look at Keith, who is laying on the spare pull-out mattress that’s kept under Lance’s bed just for him, wearing the spare pajamas that are kept in Lance’s drawer just for him.

Keith is looking at his phone too, hair in a messy ponytail, face illuminated only by his phone and Lance’s blue LED light strip that’s on the edges of the ceiling.

“Go to pride with me this summer?” Keith asks.

Lance looks up from his phone, looks down towards Keith.

Keith looks... nervous. He’s put his phone down, and he’s playing with his hair. Lance hasn’t seen Keith this nervous since he tried out for choir, and that didn’t end well.

Lance has known Keith for what feels like forever. They’ve known each other since elementary school, even though they’ve only been friends since middle school. And despite their past of ‘hatred’, they’ve shared a close rivalry and friendship for years now.

So, Lance _knows_ Keith. This is the first time Keith has _ever_ expressed interest in going to their pride parade, even though they’ve been out to each other and their friend group for years.

This is the first time Keith would be out to everyone. This is the first time everyone would know that Keith is gay.

“Of course,” Lance responds. “Let’s go together.”

He doesn’t ask Keith if he’s sure, doesn’t ask Keith if the hot weather will bother him, doesn’t ask Keith if he plans to wear long-sleeves in the middle of summer, doesn’t ask Keith if he’s nervous, doesn’t ask Keith why he doesn’t want to go with Shiro.

Lance knows it would make Keith doubt himself, and Lance doesn’t want him to do that. Lance just wants him to be happy.

Lance was going to be there for Keith through everything, just as they’ve been there for each other through everything. They were there for each other when they had to go to a different high school without all their other friends due to the rezoning. They were there for each other in their classes, through making new friends, through everything.

They got each other through freshman year.

Keith and Lance would get through this.

Keith smiles back at him. “Thanks, Lance. I love and appreciate you, you know that?”

“Of course I know. How could you _not_ love and appreciate me?”

Keith snickers and his nose crinkles up. He’s cute. Lance finds himself smiling.

Keith reaches up to give Lance a light punch on the shoulder. It doesn’t hurt.

“Shut up, let’s just sleep. Chem test is tomorrow.”

* * *

Lance is over at Keith’s house, watching “Stump Sohla” together, when they hear the pitter-patter of rain on the roof.

Keith gets up to look out the window, and Lance pauses the video.

“It’s raining,” Keith says.

“That it is.”

“It’s nice.”

“It really isn’t. I’ll never understand why you like the rain.”

“I’ll never understand why you don’t.”

“It’s wet and mood-dampening, and the humidity makes my hair all frizzy.”

“Firstly, my hair is longer than yours and it gets soaking wet for hours, so your hair argument: invalid. Secondly, it’s not mood-dampening, it’s calming. It’s cool and it’s silent but loud and it feels natural.”

The sound of the rain on the roof gets louder.

“‘Silent’ you said. Sure it is.”

“I also said it was loud, sharpshooter.”

Keith hasn’t called him sharpshooter in a while.

Lance flop on Keith’s bed dramatically.

“Ugh, what if it keeps raining this hard? How am I gonna get home?”

“Just sleepover like you always do.”

“Fair point.”

And the rain does get harder, and Lance calls his mom to tell her that she’s sleeping over, and she doesn’t bat an eye.

And Lance eats dinner with Keith and his mom and his brother Shiro, and it’s amazing as it always is.

And Lance and Keith do homework together for their calculus class, and then Keith pulls out the spare air mattress for Lance to sleep on. Keith’s bed may be big enough for both of them, but Keith stopped offering to sleep in the same bed when they were in 7th grade.

Lance kind of misses it.

But they talk, and Lance changes into the spare pajamas he always uses when he sleeps over, and Keith turns off the lights and they get into bed.

Keith falls asleep first. He always does.

Lance is playing a Picross rip-off on his phone. He’s had trouble sleeping since freshman year. He’s a junior now.

“Lance,” Keith says, under his breath.

“What?” Lance whispers back.

But there’s no answer.

Lance looks over to Keith.

Keith’s still asleep.

And he just called out Lance’s name.

Lance tries not to think anything of it. Maybe Keith is just having a normal dream and Lance just happens to be in it, which is normal. After all, you can’t control your brain and who appears in your dreams, unless you’re a lucid dreamer, and Lance is sure that if Keith could lucid dream, he would already know.

“Love you, Lance,” Keith mumbles. Lance hears it as clear as day.

His heart skips a beat. He gulps.

“Oh.”

Lance likes the sound of that. It’s weighing down his heart and fills his lungs. Lance has heard Keith tell him that he loves him many times, but this? This feels different from the usually jokey stuff, or the platonic stuff. It feels... serious. Deep. Lance feels it in his gut.

Lance likes hearing Keith saying that he loves him like _that_.

Maybe Lance is in love with Keith.

* * *

It’s the last day of school, their last day of being juniors, and Lance is trying to make plans for the summer. It’s lunchtime, and the lunchroom is as loud as ever as Lance eats with Keith, Romelle, Allura, Hunk, and Pidge.

Keith is sitting next to him, scrolling through amusement park ticket prices on his phone. It’s kind of their tradition to go to an amusement park and for them to compete over the prizes they’ve won. Keith started calling him “sharpshooter” because of how good he was at those shooting carnival games.

Keith’s head is on Lance’s shoulder. He likes the feeling of it. It just feels... right. And warm. And fuzzy.

Yeah, it’s probably because Lance is in love with Keith. Or maybe he isn’t and he’s just starved for human contact. He’ll never know.

“It’s gonna be pretty warm Keith, so... you wanna hit up the beach?”

“Counterargument: pool. You know how I feel about sand,” Keith says. Lance can feel his shoulder vibrate from Keith’s voice. Oh. That makes his heart tighten. Cool.

“Come on, pools are no fun compared to the beach and nature and just being one with the sand and the waves.”

“Infections and sand being stuck to your feet for hours aren’t fun compared to getting to swim in a controlled environment. Let’s just do the pool.”

“Fine, but I’m taking us to the outdoor one.”

“That’s like a 50-minute bus ride.”

“It’s worth it.”

“No, it’s not. It’s still outdoors dumbass. I could still get an infection, plus there’s gonna be some five-year-old white kid with their mom not paying attention to them who pisses in the pool. Not to mention, we have to come all the way back soaking wet on the _bus_.”

Lance is silent. He doesn’t want to go back wet on the bus for like 50-minutes. And his mom wouldn’t want to drive him that far either.

“Fine, we’ll go to the indoor pool. But you’re paying!”

“Deal.”

“This is why everyone thinks you’re dating,” Hunk says from across the table.

“Yeah, you two seem _way_ more lovey-dovey than me and Allura, and we’re the couple here,” Romelle says before shoving her hamburger into her mouth. Those two have couple rings, so Lance doesn’t know how he and Keith are more lovey-dovey than them.

“Yeah, a couple of besties! But seriously, no one thinks that,” Lance says. There’s no way everyone thinks that he’s dating Keith, that would be too much.

Ah, but the thought of dating Keith doesn’t seem that bad. It actually seems... nice.

The idea of getting to cuddle with Keith, and for them to go out places and call them dates, holding hands. 

His heart feels clogged. Ah, Lance likes that idea.

Maybe Lance is in love with Keith after all.

“You went to prom together Lance,” Pidge says, deadpan. “You did a promposal. You got us involved to make it a mystery for Keith to solve. You made the end a private promposal because you knew Keith wouldn’t want public attention.”

“You bought him a boutonniere on the day of so you two could match,” Allura chimes in.

“They’re just saying, you two are inseparable,” Hunk says. “Always have been since you came here. _Everyone_ thinks you’re dating.”

“Oh.” It’s all Lance can say, really. He didn’t really see that people would think they were dating, and all he can do is hope that it doesn’t make Keith uncomfortable. He looks down, and Keith is still scrolling on his phone. Unfazed.

“You scared that people think we’re dating, sharpshooter?” he says.

“Not a chance, samurai.”

Keith stops scrolling. “I love you, you know?”

“That’s gay,” Pidge says. Lance ignores them.

“I love you too, _babe_.”

Keith chuckles at that, and Lance can feel the vibration from it travel through his body.

 _Oh_. That went straight to his heart _and_ his gut.

Yeah, Lance is in love with Keith. Plain and simple.

But calling Keith ‘babe’?

It’s just a joke. Just teasing.

Lance keeps telling himself that, as he looks at other stuff to do during the summer.

Just a joke.

* * *

Keith and Lance are at the indoor pool, as they promised, Keith in his red trunks and Lance in blue.

Keith paid the fees to go in, as he promised to, and there they were, on the hottest day of the summer. And surprisingly, there are not that many people here.

Keith had wanted to sit in the hot tub, to which Lance made fun of him for wanting to be warmer on the hottest day of the summer.

But, Lance caved. And there they were, two bros, sitting in a hot tub, five feet apart. He can’t say they’re not gay, because Keith is 100% gay and Lance is bi as fuck, but the meme works nonetheless.

And Keith was just relaxing, eyes closed, breathing slowly, smiling, hair in a low ponytail.

Lance is relaxing too. The water is warm around him, and it’s so nice. But, he can’t stop looking at Keith.

He just looks so peaceful. He’s only this peaceful when he’s sleeping. It’s nice.

Lance can’t stand to look at him being so cute anymore. He splashes Keith with the water.

Keith’s eyes open wide.

“What was that for?! Splashing is saved for the actual pool! This is for relaxing,” he says. Aw, he’s pouting. Lance thinks it’s cute.

And now he’s looking at Keith’s lips.

Uhhhh, Lance refuses to look at his lips anymore. Or be in the same pool as him. He’s too cute. Lance stands up suddenly, water splashing everywhere.

“Then let’s go into the actual pool.” Lance raises his right eyebrow at Keith. “Last one there without running pays for slushes later.”

Lance slips on his blue flip-flops and starts speed-walking to the pool, making sure he’s not slipping as he goes.

He can hear Keith not that far behind him.

Lance makes it to the pool first.

Keith gets in right behind him. His face is red.

“Hey _sharpshooter_ , that was unfair! That’s invalid, I shouldn’t have to pay for anything.”

“Hm, I don’t know about that, you _did_ lose.”

“We’re having another contest _right now_. Freestyle, from one end to the other and back. Loser has to do a favor for the winner.”

“I am not taking that offer. We all remember what happened the last time we did that.”

“It wasn’t _that_ bad.”

“I saw your brother and his boyfriend making out last time. It was _pretty_ bad.”

“How was I supposed to know they were in there?!”

“Anyways, my point is that we are _not_ doing favors.”

“ _Fine_ , but don’t expect me to buy you anything.”

“Fine.”

Lance is fine with that. As long as he doesn’t have to think about how nice Keith’s lips are, or how much he wants to run his hands through his hair, or—

Yeah, okay Lance has to stop now.

He has to splash Keith again. He needs a distraction from the water dripping down Keith’s neck to—

Lance splashes Keith with a fuckton bunch of water.

“Oh, you’re on,” Keith says. “You’re on.”

They splash each other with water for what feels like hours, but it was only twenty minutes. Lance’s heart is racing, and he can’t help but laugh when he gets splashed.

And Keith is laughing too. He keeps trying to avoid the splash by ducking under the water, but Lance keeps faking him out and splashing him when he comes up. Keith’s hair tie falls out, leaving his hair loose.

Keith can’t stop laughing.

And Lance can’t stop looking at him.

Keith laughing makes him _f_ _eel_ things. He feels things in his stomach, like there are tsunamis crashing onto a shore. Like there are fish swimming in his heart.

Lance really is in love with Keith.

He wants to take him on dates and hold his hand and run his hands through his hair and just hear that laugh forever. He wants to hug Keith a lot more often than he could. And not just like a side hug, or a quick hug, like a _real_ hug. He wants to _hold_ Keith. And to be held by Keith.

Lance really wants to kiss him.

Now, Lance has known that he’s wanted to kiss Keith for a while. It’s been almost two years since he realized that he had feelings for him, and no matter how much he tried to brush it off and move on, he really couldn’t.

And now, he can’t stop staring at his lips, those lips spread in a huge smile as Keith laughs.

Lance knows he can’t kiss Keith.

It would make everything awkward. Lance wouldn’t be able to look Keith in the eyes anymore without thinking about it.

Keith, being his awkward self, would probably avoid him too.

And then that makes it complicated for everyone else in their friend group, like Pidge and Hunk and Allura and Romelle.

And it would make it so awkward for their families too. Lance would have to explain to his mom why they can’t have family dinners, and then Veronica would complain that he was being selfish because that means she has to choose between her wife Acxa and her brother and it would make holidays awkward, and—

It could ruin everything if he kissed Keith.

Lance really couldn’t kiss Keith.

But he really wanted to.

So instead, Lance just dunks Keith’s head under the water for a second. And when he comes right back up, Lance says in the most teasing way possible “I love you.” 

Never.

* * *

Keith had been learning how to drive over the summer, and he finally turned 18 and got his license. To celebrate, Shiro lent Keith his work van (which was a bad decision on his part), and so he and Lance went out on a drive.

They tried not to go too far, and they honestly didn’t have to. They just wanted to see the stars, so they only had to go far enough away from the lights in their small town.

To be honest, Keith didn’t really want to see the stars in the first place, but after Lance convinced him that he could bring bug spray and blankets, he was all in.

So there they were, in the middle of the night, having a “picnic.” It’s not really a picnic since they’re sitting inside of the trunk of the van and eating Doritos and non-melted s’mores (despite Keith’s wishes to start a fire).

It wasn’t like this isn’t the first time Keith and Lance have been out under the stars like this. Their families went on joint camping trips all the time, especially when they were younger. Lance remembers when Keith got that infection from the paper cut that got exposed to the river water.

But despite all the times they’ve gone camping, they’ve never been out here together like this. Never alone, never with their assortment of snacks and blankets and hot chocolate with cinnamon and the safety of the van.

Never with Lance knowing he’s in love with Keith.

But, Lance has survived this long, and he’ll continue to survive being in love with Keith while being in close proximity to him. Lance is happy with Keith no matter what they are.

Speaking of close proximity, Keith is snuggled under their shared big fuzzy gray blanket, leaning on Lance, snacking on the dark chocolate they brought for the uncooked s’mores.

Lance is holding his hot chocolate with cinnamon in the thermos they brought.

He’s glad the both of them are warm. But he’s aware of the weight of Keith against him.

Yeah, Lance is gonna put on some music.

He pulls out his phone and puts on some Troye Sivan, something he knows both him and Keith like. Just something to fill the silence.

‘EASE’ starts playing, and Lance puts down his phone and looks up to the sky. He doesn’t know too many constellations, but somehow he’s never felt so close to the stars.

He’s got one next to him, snuggled up against him after all. This _is_ true, since Lance bought Keith a star and named it after him as a birthday gift once.

“Do you ever wonder what's up there?” Lance says.

Keith chuckles. “Up where? In your head? All the time.”

“Rude. I mean up _there_ ,” Lance says gesturing towards the night sky.

“Lance, you’re asking me, the conspiracy theorist, if there are aliens? You know what my answer is.”

“Not even just aliens though, I mean like... alternate universes. Like what if there’s a universe where I’m a baker or something? Or one where I have a cat?”

“Or one where you’re not as annoying?”

“I’m annoying in _every_ universe, excuse you. Oh god, what if there’s a universe where I’m _cishet?”_

“You’re bi in every universe, Lance,” Keith says before pulling the blanket up.

“I hope so. Do you think there’s a universe where we’re astronauts or space fighters?”

“Knowing you? I could see it.”

The song changes, from ‘EASE’ to ‘for him.’

“What if there’s a universe where we’re like the Power Rangers! With Allura and Romelle and Pidge and Hunk! And we’re all space fighters and we’re fighting villains! And we’re heroes and we come together to make a giant robot and we fight with like, powers or something. I _clearly_ have the power of water, and you have fire. I don’t know about the others, but then we fight some kind of intergalactic space tyranny or something, I don’t know. And of course, we’re rivals and having competitions all the time and trying to beat each other and we annoy everyone else with our friendship and—”

“I think I’m in love with you,” Keith says under his breath.

There’s no way Lance heard that right. He turns to look at Keith.“What?”

Keith’s ears turn red and his eyes widen. “Uh, I didn’t mean to say that, fuck.”

“No wait, say it again. Please.” Lance had to hear it again, had to make sure his ears or his brain weren’t playing tricks on him after pining for so long.

“No,” Keith mumbles, turning his head away from Lance.

“Keith, please.”

“Fine. I said ‘I think I’m in love with you.’ Now can you just let me wallow in peace?”

Lance still can’t believe it. Keith might be in love with him. Heck, Keith _thinks_ he’s in love with him.

But Keith is shying away, and Lance knows Keith, and Keith is beating himself up over this, and Lance has to fix this.

“Keith, I’m in love with you too.”

And Lance can’t stop, because it’s the first time he’s actually said anything about his feelings and he can’t stop _now_ , and he knows if he keeps talking that it will help Keith calm down, and so he does.

“Keith, I’ve been in love with you for at least a year, and maybe even longer, I’ll never truly know. But at the least, I know that I’ve been in love with you since the time I called you ‘babe.’ And I haven’t told you since I’ve been scared that it’s going to ruin _everything_ , all of our friendship and all we’ve been through, and all our friend groups and our families. And—” 

Keith turns back to Lance, his entire face as red as a sunset. “Oh my god, Lance, you goofball, just shut up and kiss me please.”

And Keith reaches his hands out to run his hands through Lance’s hair and he can feel tingles following his fingers, and Lance really can’t handle this anymore, and he leans into Keith, and kisses him for the first time.

And everything just feels right. Finally, his lips are on Keith’s and they just seem to slot perfectly and it just feels right.

Lance’s heart feels like it’s stopping and starting all at once, like Keith has lit all of his entire body on fire, like he can’t get enough now.

Keith pulls away, and Lance feels like he needs to kiss him right away.

Keith takes in a deep breath. Lance’s hands must’ve been running through his hair, because it’s messier than before. 

“Hey,” Lance says, smiling at Keith.

“Hey,” Keith responds.

“So... do you want to be my boyfriend?”

Keith laughs, and Lance still thinks he has never heard a more beautiful sound.

“Only if you get to be _my_ boyfriend too.”

“Deal." Lance's heart feels like it's going to burst at the seams.

"Hey, samurai. I love you.”

Keith smiles back at him. “I love you too, sharpshooter.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really hoped you all liked this. In all honesty, it was supposed to be short, I only had to write at least 1,000 words. And now, here I am, 4,000 words later. I did have a fun time doing this though, and it turned into something beautiful! Hopefully, with the social distancing and my classes being cancelled for the rest of the month and being moved online after that, I'll be having more time to write.
> 
> The title is from the song EASE by Troye Sivan!
> 
> If you enjoyed this or if you didn't, please leave a comment below! Or, find me on Twitter! I don't actually have all of my fics updated on my Tumblr anymore, so I'm kind of just dropping it for now.
> 
> Twitter: [@_keithtrash_](https://twitter.com/_keithtrash_)
> 
> And, if you like my content, you can find my ko-fi link on my [Carrd](https://keithtrash.carrd.co).


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